tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post113042178811715230..comments2023-12-28T01:28:36.790-08:00Comments on Murky Thoughts: Anthropology of intellectual property law: In a nutshellMThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02341704109256270557noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1138659472590592742006-01-30T14:17:00.000-08:002006-01-30T14:17:00.000-08:00Actually, this is really an ethical no-brainer. Ri...Actually, this is really an ethical no-brainer. Richard Posner does not want to be associated with this blog. Even <I>I</I> don't want to be associated with most of what appears on this blog. Notice it's anonymous?MThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02341704109256270557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1138659030419282162006-01-30T14:10:00.000-08:002006-01-30T14:10:00.000-08:00I know, it's awfully tempting, but as regular read...I know, it's awfully tempting, but as regular readers know, Murky Thoughts eschews all unseemliness. I've no basis to claim Posner's read anything beyond this one post or that he thought too much about it before opining. Just making public that private communication in the quotation marks is pushing Murky Thoughts' lofty and iron-clad standards of decorum. i.e. Maybe. I'll think it over.MThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02341704109256270557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1138649384319660482006-01-30T11:29:00.000-08:002006-01-30T11:29:00.000-08:00The Posner endorsement should help you sell a few ...The Posner endorsement should help you sell a few more copies of the blog, but moreso if you plaster across the top of your main page . . . .t.s.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02474050291507723178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1130905195888934592005-11-01T20:19:00.000-08:002005-11-01T20:19:00.000-08:00I'm happy to concede a natural right to invent, bu...<I>I'm happy to concede a natural right to invent, but right beside it I see a right to copy, so it's not obvious to me as a place to start a plea for intellectual property rights, whether moral or monetary.</I><BR/><BR/>Certainly, morals have a lot to do with this. Our own patent system, as allowed by the constitution, is moralistic in that it is justified only by promoting "the Progress of Science and useful Arts" -- a concept which is couched in the the common good for society and not in the individual self interest of the inventor or author... I'll have to give your point about the relation to "right to copy" some more thought. For now I'll just note that our copyright expiration system also embodies an eventual "right to copy," originating again from the constitutional concept of societal good ("securing for limited times").Jackson Lenfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064191516786486320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1130882847297335952005-11-01T14:07:00.000-08:002005-11-01T14:07:00.000-08:00Thanks for the thoughts. I'm happy to concede a na...Thanks for the thoughts. I'm happy to concede a natural right to invent, but right beside it I see a right to copy, so it's not obvious to me as a place to start a plea for intellectual property rights, whether moral or monetary. I look forward to reading where you go with the idea on your blog though. I think it's no accident that your examples of status-symbol-free societies are utopian. That squares with my footnote comment about a belief in God being an internal patent office that lessens the need to distinguish yourself in the real world. Also, just because you require uniforms doesn't mean kids or communists won't find subtle ways to express themselves--haircuts, jewelry, posture, secret handshakes, etc.MThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02341704109256270557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8331841.post-1130873484712062612005-11-01T11:31:00.000-08:002005-11-01T11:31:00.000-08:00"Note that it's easy to imagine societies without ...<I>"Note that it's easy to imagine societies without personal property but not societies without creativity based prestige--and likewise not a society without symbol-based designations of status, such as the headdresses, soldier stripes, priestly rituals and sumptuary laws."</I><BR/><BR/>Actually, I find it quite easy to imagine societies devoid of class distinctions based on symbols worn as apparel. As a matter of fact, such an ideal is one of the recurring tenents of utopian societies, and has been attempted many times even in recent history, not only by socialists and communists, but by religious groups such as 19th century Mormonism as well.<BR/><BR/>But your point that prestige, itself, is a necessary commodity for the creation of new ideas and inventions certainly has a lot of merit. I just wouldn't be so quick to confuse "invention" and "intellectual property." The former is <A HREF="http://righttocreate.blogspot.com/2005/10/brief-history-of-idea-monopoly.html" REL="nofollow">present throughout history</A> (going back even to homo-erectus), regardless of whether we have an <A HREF="http://righttocreate.blogspot.com/2005/10/intellectual-property-monopoly-regime.html" REL="nofollow">intellectual property regime </A>or not, and seems more to be born of neccesity and convenience than of prestige. The latter, IP, is more accurately called "Intellectual Monopoly", and cannot exist without the force exerted by a state to bring it into being.<BR/><BR/>Maybe that looks like nitpicking, but I think it's an important distinction and I think, based on your <A HREF="http://murkythoughts.blogspot.com/2005/02/copyright-celebrity-prestige-economy.html" REL="nofollow">other writings</A>, that we might agree on this point: it seems very likely that civilization will continue advancing its technology at the same pace even as we reduce the power of the Intellectual Property Regime. In fact, it seems more likely that removing the barriers imposed by our current IP system will result in an even greater flourishing.Jackson Lenfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064191516786486320noreply@blogger.com